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This Winterreise is the final instalment of Matthias Goerne’s series of Schubert lieder for Harmonia Mundi and it brings the Matthias Goerne Schubert Edition, begun in 2008, to a dark, harrowing close.

We see the characters first in two boxes at an opera house. The five singers share a box and stare at the stage. But Konstanze’s eye is caught by a man in a box opposite: Bassa Selim (actor Tobias Moretti), who stares steadily at her and broods in voiceover at having lost her, his inspiration.

Richard Strauss may be most closely associated with the soprano voice but
this recording of a selection of the composer’s lieder by baritone Thomas
Hampson is a welcome reminder that the rapt lyricism of Strauss’s settings
can be rendered with equal beauty and character by the low male voice.

Bernarda Fink’s recording of Gustav Mahler’s Lieder is an important new release that includes outstanding performances of the composer’s well-known songs, along with compelling readings of some less-familiar ones.

This live performance of Laurent Pelly’s Glyndebourne staging of
Humperdinck’s affectionately regarded fairy tale opera, was recorded at
Glyndebourne Opera House in July and August 2010, and the handsomely produced
disc set — the discs are presented in a hard-backed, glossy-leaved book and
supplemented by numerous production photographs and an informative article by
Julian Johnson — is certainly stylish and unquestionably recommendable.

Recorded at a live performance in 2012, this CD brings together an eclectic
selection of turn-of-the-century orchestral songs and affirms the extraordinary
versatility, musicianship and technical accomplishment of mezzo-soprano
Magdalena Kožená.

Once I was: Songs by Ricky Ian Gordon features an assortment of
songs by Ricky Ian Gordon interpreted by soprano Stacey Tappan, a longtime
friend of the composer since their work on his opera Morning Star at
the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Alfredo Kraus, one of the most astute artists in operatic history in terms of careful management of technique and vocal resources, once said in an interview that ‘you have to make a choice when you start to sing and decide whether you want to service the music, and be at the top of your art, or if you want to be a very popular tenor.’

In the thirty-five years immediately following its American première at the Metropolitan Opera in 1914, Italo Montemezzi’s ‘Tragic Poem in Three Acts’ L’amore dei tre re was performed in New York on sixty-six occasions.

Known principally for its two concert show-pieces for the leading lady, the success of Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur relies upon finding a soprano willing to take on, and able to pull off, the eponymous role.

It would be condescending and perhaps even offensive to suggest that singing
traditional Spirituals is a rite a passage for artists of color, but the musical heritage of the United States has been greatly enriched by the performances and recordings of Spirituals by important artists such as Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry, Jessye Norman, Barbara Hendricks, Florence Quivar, Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, and Denyce Graves.

As a companion to their excellent Great Wagner Singers boxed set
compiled and released in celebration of the Wagner Bicentennial, Deutsche
Grammophon have also released Great Wagner Conductors, a selection of
orchestral music conducted by five of the most iconic Wagnerian conductors of
the Twentieth Century, extracted from Deutsche Grammophon’s extensive
archives.

What better way for Masonic brothers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emmanuel Shikaneder to disseminate Masonic virtues, than through the most popular musical entertainment of their age, a happy ending folktale that features a dragon, enchanting flutes and bells, mixed-up parentage, and a beautiful young princess in distress?

Formed in an interment camp in 1921, the choir, under the sole leadership of Jaroff, persisted until 1979. With an institution of such longevity and popularity it is not surprising that someone would pick up the torch and seek to maintain the tradition. Thus, Wanja Hlibka and George Tymezenko, soloists under Jaroff, formed a “successor group,” the Don Cossacks Soloists in 1991. This present recording of liturgical music preserves a live concert given by the Don Cossacks Soloists in 2000 at Maulbronn Monastery, a German Cistercian monastery from the twelfth into the sixteenth century, with a long history as a school following that.

There is certainly much here to like. The full-throated, vibrant singing can be thrilling in its strength, while less exuberant sections remain haunting in their ponderous weight and gravity. And the recitational chanting is, like an aural whiff of incense, powerfully, and sometimes poignantly, evocative of the dynamics of the liturgy. Compellingly, too, the choir favors a wide range of volume, and one is left to ponder whether it is the fullness of sound or the hush of pianissimo that creates the most lasting impression.

That said, other aspects are less favorable. One need not impose a Western notion of blend in order to question balance in the ensemble. Outer voices, the profound basses and high tenors, tend to predominate, leaving the middle range wanting more presence and heft. Additionally, the program itself, heard at full length as a “concert,” will be too narrowly drawn for some tastes, I suspect, for the works, while often beautiful examples of liturgical art, can seem less engaging when removed from that rich context and heard as a long succession of concert works.

Not many of the works will be familiar to western listeners. Gretschaninow’s setting of the Creed is perhaps an exception, as is surely the Kiev melody (“Holy God”) that Tschaikowsky so movingly borrows in the 1812 Overture. As we know it best “in quotation,” it is particularly rewarding to hear it here shorn of the inverted commas, sung with fluency of style, presence, and native attachment. And it is these qualities that pervade the recording as a whole, commendably so.